Asbury Students Win at NATAS Awards

July 5, 2018

Asbury University’s Media Communication program is nationally-recognized for its top-quality classes and offerings. Students enter the workforce with a competitive set of skills and a readiness to produce, direct, edit and write on the biggest blockbuster film sets. That’s why it’s no surprise that at this year’s National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Ohio Valley Chapter) Student Production Awards, Asbury students impressed judges yet again.

NATAS, the gatekeeper of the prestigious Emmy Award, recently announced its 2018 award winners, who will be recognized during a ceremony later this summer in Lawrenceburg, Ind.

Four Asbury students won awards, more than any other University in the region. See below for a full list of nominations and awards. These student films, which were also presented at Highbridge, demonstrate the immense talent within the Asbury film community and are a testament to the quality of the Media Communication major.

Each year NATAS awards a $3,000 grant called the David J. Clark Scholarship. This year the grant will be given to Matthew Lively ’19, marking the third time an Asburian takes home the award. Lively will be presented with the honor during the Emmy Awards Gala on August 18.

“I am incredibly honored to win the scholarship,” Lively said. “It’s a very humbling reward for some hard work put in. I’m grateful to be representing Asbury at this event with the other students accepting awards. We’ve all worked hard, and it’s great to help bring recognition to the establishment who helped us get to where we are. I hope to represent Asbury more in the future alongside the many other professionals emerging from Asbury’s program.”

Lively credits his success as a student filmmaker to Asbury’s Media Communication program and the knowledge he gleaned in classes.

“The Asbury Media Communication program has pushed me in numerous ways,” Lively said. “The ability to make films on such a professional level at school is an amazing opportunity that I don’t take lightly. The program does a great job of limiting you within classes as to what you can use in your film, which really helps me to define what I want to say and what I think is most important for the film. In many ways, the program has shaped me into a more definitive storyteller and more professional worker.”

Rosebelle Easthom ’18 will be accepting the Directing award at this year’s NATAS. It was a culmination of Asbury classes and a summer spent at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting that helped her grow as an actress and director.

“Asbury has given me the opportunity to grow and explore in different areas,” Easthom said. “Acting and Directing classes both taught me a lot about humanity, freedom and growth which applies to how I treat myself and to how I portray others on film.”

Retired Asbury professor Doug Smart was also nominated for an Emmy in the directing category for the Asbury sitcom “Friends Like You.”

Join us in congratulating all of our students who were selected for this high achievement.